A newly married couple are hoping “to show the whole world that you can be gay and Muslim” after their wedding in the West Midlands.
Twenty-four-year-old Jahed Choudhury and 19-year-old Sean Rogan married in Walsall, in what could be the UK’s first same-sex marriage involving a Muslim partner.
Footage showed the couple dressed in traditional Bangladeshi attire to say their vows while surrounded by loved ones at the town’s registry office.
He told Express and Star: “I’d not long overdosed and I was crying on a bench and Sean came over and asked if I was okay.”
Adding that Sean gave him hope at his lowest point and has stood by him ever since.
Choudhury said that being an openly-gay Muslim made him feel like something of a ‘black sheep’ and that he ‘stood out like a sore thumb’ and often felt trapped between his sexuality and faith.
He tried to deny his orientation and even tried taking medication and a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh.
They started living together in 2015 and Mr Choudhury proposed on his husband’s birthday last year.
Mr Choudhury said: “This is about showing people I don’t care, my family doesn’t want to come on the day, they just don’t want to see it, it’s too embarrassing for them.
“They think it’s a disease and can be cured, some of my family still call it a phase.
“I want to say to all people going through the same thing that’s it’s okay – we’re going to show the whole world that you can be gay and Muslim.”
Mr Rogan, 19, told the Express and Star he would stand by his husband “every step of the way”.
“Being gay’s not wrong, it’s not ‘a phase’,” he added. “People just need a bit of support.”
